Hermione was a brilliant but alas overworked journalist. She was sometimes so deeply engrossed in her work that she tended to forget about the outside world. That is how she found herself on a random friday night at the supermarket eyeing the red decorated shelves with suspicion. Her lack of sleep might also hinder her usually quick brain.
Why the fuck was she seeing red hearts everywhere?
Was she hallucinating? Was she finally experiencing a caffeine induced shut down, as her friends kept warning her she would?
After a few more minutes of dumb blinking, Hermione’s mind finally caught up.
Valentine’s day.
Of course.
She started walking away from the atrociously pink decorated shelves, sniffing in disdain. For Hermione was a cynic at heart and commercial celebrations born out of barbaric traditions were definitely not something she participated in. It was a question of ethics.
But for some reason she stopped in her tracks. You see, the thing about Hermione when she was exhausted and overworked was, she could kill for chocolate. It was her worst craving and she was completely helpless to resist it when tired.
So Hermione slowly took a few steps backwards. And reached for the huge heart shaped chocolate box. Then she bent and grabbed a smaller pink one. She took a few steps to her left and indulged in a third box.
* * *
Once she was positive she had enough chocolate to make herself sick, she went to the register. The small supermarket was far from crowded but the cashier seemed to be as tired as she was because he worked with impressive slowness. It was almost worrying. As she patiently waited in the line with her five boxes of Valentine’s chocolates, she heard sniggers behind her. Writing it off as dumb teenagers, she didn’t bother turning around.
But then laughter exploded in the quiet place as some guy cried “Dude, you basically fell in love with a casanova”
“Fuck off”, a gruff voice answered.
“You have to admit, for someone who thought they’d met their soulmate, you clearly read the signs wrong”, a prim feminine voice added.
“Don’t you think I know that Pans?” the same voice snapped.
It was a nice voice, Hermione thought. She’d heard it before.
She turned around and her eyes fell on Handsome Guy From The Avocado Debacle. The world seemed to slow as they stared at each other.
He was as handsome as always, and rendered incredibly endearing by the red that tinged his cheeks. She gathered from his blush that he was the one being teased.
* The Embarrassing Avocado Debacle *
“Hi, can I help you ?”
He startled and looked down at her in surprise, mouth agape. After blinking several times, he stuttered
“You… Do you… I mean, do you- work here?”
She smiled tentatively, already second guessing herself.
“No, I don’t. It’s just that… well, you’re looking pretty distressed over there, you’ve been frantically palping the avocados for a few minutes now and I thought… I mean, it seemed like a cry for help.”
At these words, his already pink cheeks turned burning red, the blush spreading to his neck and his eyes lowering in embarrassment. It was such a surprising contrast with the way he held himself. Chin high, back straight, both his voice and facial features gave away an aristocratic upbringing.
Hermione didn’t know the man, but she’d seen him a couple of times before at this supermarket and she couldn’t help but notice he stood out from the crowd. It was also, probably, due to his impressive height and striking beauty. His aquiline nose, high cheekbones, strong jaw and pale skin could make him pass as a Greek statue. But here he was, blushing and blubbering - undeniably human.
“Oh, I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to be rude! I realise it sounded this way but I genuinely just thought I could help you. I don’t claim to be an avocado expert but I do know how to tell whether they are ripe enough, if you want?”
“That’s okay, it’s… well it’s pretty fucking embarrasing but if you don’t mind yes, I’d love some help. I’ve been entrusted with the task of bringing the salad to dinner with my friends. But the thing is I’ve never made one, so…yep. I’m definitely helpless and I cannot thank you enough for listening to my silent and unwilling cry for help.”
At that Hermione laughed softly and nodded, prompting a bemused smile from the man.
She started showing him how to tell which avocados were best to choose if the dinner was the next day or in a few days. Handsome Guy seemed almost entranced by what she was saying, so she kept going.
Always the overachiever, Hermione led him throughout the stalls of vegetables, pointing towards the ones she recommended buying, giving advice on which ones would, in her opinion, taste best together. Handsome Guy just followed her around, nodding along to everything she was saying, sometimes asking shyly a question.
When she handed him a lemon she deemed “absolutely perfect for that dressing”, she jolted.
And she realised she had just gone on a lengthy rant about salads when she had just meant to help him choose a ripe avocado.
And fuck, he hadn’t even asked for help in the beginning. She had basically come onto him and forcefully made him listen to her going on and on about salad ingredients and dressings.
She glanced at her watch and let out a mortified whimper. Hermione had been talking for at least 30 minutes. Barely meeting the eyes of her unwilling victim, she cried
“OhmygodIamsosorry”
“What for?” Handsome Guy replied, sounding genuinely confused. But as she met his eyes, Hermione realised they were filled with mischief and his lips struggled to contain a smile.
“I swear I don’t usually trap random people into listening to rants about salad ingredients”
“Should I consider myself lucky then?” he smirked.
Before she could answer - not that she had any idea how to respond - he added “It’s perfectly alright, you helped me more than I could’ve hoped for and I probably could have kept on listening to you talk about anything for hours”
Then realising what he’d just said the pink returned to his cheeks. He gave her an embarrassed smile, which she returned.
And they just kept staring at each other for what felt like an incredibly inappropriate length of time but also way too short.
Finally Hermione blinked and checked her watch once more.
“I really should go, sorry again for keeping you so long” his smile faltered a bit, the light in his eyes deeming as he answered
“Yes of course, and no problem it really was a pleasure”
“Well… I guess I’ll…see you around?”
“You will. I mean- that is to say… Yes. You will probably see me again. Since we both go to this supermarket… Not that I know you enough to know that! It’s just that I have seen you there. Before. Not that I was looking, I mean-”
“I know what you mean.”
Looking over her shoulder as she left, her lips curved in a teasing smile and she added “And for the record, I noticed you, too.”
She barely got to witness an impressive blush take over the young man's face from the corner of her eye before she was gone.
Ever since that day two months ago, she’d offered him a bright smile whenever they crossed paths in the supermarket, sometimes exchanging a soft greeting.
* * *
Hermione grew uncomfortable as the guy’s friends began to laugh louder, the sound echoing in the small supermarket while she deposited one chocolate box after the other on the desk.
One of them, a tall and lanky guy with dark brown curls, was even pointing her way while saying something, as though he didn’t think she could see him or, more likely, didn’t care either way.
She suddenly felt self conscious about buying so much chocolate for herself. She didn’t make a habit of caring about other people’s opinion of her but being literally laughed at by people her age mere meters behind her was definitely her breaking point.
She turned around to face them and threw a withering look their way, suddenly feeling furious. Furious after these people she didn’t even know who were clearly being cruel, furious after Handsome Guy for not being the sweet person she thought she had met and finally, furious after herself for letting them get to her. She greeted the cashier with as much politeness as she could muster (which was… not a lot) and paid as fast as she could. Grabbing her boxes, she headed towards the exit.
“Wait! Please wait!” Hermione halted in her steps, turning back around.
Handsome Guy was there, breathing deeply and looking flushed.
“Hi”
Still feeling hurt, she quipped “Hi”, her tone sharp.
“You’re upset” he stated, eyes wide, looking around frantically as if searching for a solution.
Rolling her eyes, Hermione sniffed “Astute observation”.
“Is it because…? I didn’t mean to… That is to say, I didn’t want to embarrass you, I’m sorry.”
She thought he might be apologizing for his friends being rude assholes but she was starting to doubt. “What are you sorry for exactly? Your friends being dickheads?”
She tried to remain cross with him, but the ashamed look mixed with desperation that took over his face made him look incredibly adorable.
“No - well yes, that too. My friends are stupid and so am I and they were just making fun of me, I swear. I was just going to say sorry if you felt like they were laughing at you. They were not.”
“Right. Makes sense, clearly looking rudely at someone while laughing and pointing fingers at them is the epitome of politeness. I guess I just overreacted.” Fuming, Hermione started to leave but was interrupted.
“Wait, I know it sounds stupid they really were making fun of me.”
“Explain.”
“I…god this is embarrassing. I may have… developed a- a teeny tiny crush. Onyou. I have been noticing you around the supermarket for a while. So tonight when I saw you reach for a Valentine’s chocolate box I realised you were probably taken, but then you grabbed several more and instead of recomforting me my friends were basically telling me you were probably a casanova and I might as well test my luck and see if you would be willing to buy a… what was it, sixth box? Anyway they were just being dumb and having a laugh at my expense”.
Having said that, he looked ready to crawl inside earth and hide but also relieved, as if he had been keeping that… infatuation for himself for a while. On her side, Hermione was pretty dumbstruck. She really hadn’t been expecting that explanation from him. And oddly, she was charmed by the sight of this standoffish man clumsily barring his feelings to her, all to avoid making her upset.
“You… since when?”. Well. She wasn’t proud of herself on that one. She liked to think of herself as a confident and well-spoken woman. But damn, a handsome man she’d held a strange sort of curiosity – okay, definitely more than just curiosity, maybe rather attraction – was suddenly admitting his long lasting crush on her, she was struggling.
He looked at her, eyes soft and smile teasing “Well, there is this girl that I first saw at the supermarket some 6 months ago, who was incredibly beautiful. I’ve tried to have her notice me by shopping close to her or meeting her gaze but she is always daydreaming or clearly thinking about something else. In 4 months of hard labour all I’ve managed to do is have her smile at me when she meets my gaze, which has left me pretty fucking desperate. But then, about 2 months ago, the weirdest thing happened. I was in the fruits and vegetables aisle, searching for the perfect avocado while daydreaming about the lovely lady that occupies all my thoughts. When suddenly she appeared before me, offering to help me choose the right avocado. And then she started talking and her voice was the best thing I had ever heard and she was just so kind and witty and cute. I’d be damned if I’d told her I was actually a pretty decent cook, just a very distracted one. Later that evening, after I had made a fool of myself in front of her, I couldn't help but talk about her at dinner. A lot."
"To take the piss my friends decided to accompany me to the supermarket tonight to finally see who this girl I’ve been talking non stop about is. And as we reach you, you have 4 boxes of Valentine’s chocolate in your arms, are murmuring “fuck it” and reaching for a fifth. My first thought was that you were taken, and clearly really in love with whoever it was if you were buying them so many gifts. Then my mate Blaise said you might be buying them for several people, meaning you have many lovers. And I know it’s dumb but I couldn’t help myself but be a bit hopeful.”
“That’s kind of fucked up… You wouldn’t mind being one of my, like, five hypothetical partners?”
“Oh I would hate it. I'm an only child and I'm not known for sharing. But I'm definitely desperate enough to hope for any scrape of you I can get.”
The man – it felt weird to hear such a heartfelt confession from someone whose name she didn’t even know – was still blushing but held himself with undeniable pride.
Dumbfounded, Hermione started to spin on her heels, with the intention of hiding away to clear her mind and inspect what had just happened.
“Right. Okay. Yes.” Hermione was still a tired and overworked journalist, but now she was also a very confused woman on top of that.
“Wait! Aren’t you going to say anything else?”
“Well, I’m pretty confused right now, to be fair. But I’m not upset anymore.” She offered him a kind smile, and it seemed to appease him, as he visibly relaxed.
“I’m glad.But I was actually still wondering about the chocolate boxes? " "If it's not too personal, that is." he added sheepishly.
"Oh! Right. I am definitely single, if that's what your asking" the blush came back on his cheeks, as well as on hers.
"So...not several partners ?"
"Nope. I was just really craving chocolate, work this week has been hectic and I needed comfort"
The man looked relieved, and smiled warmly. "I know the feeling".
Then he opened his mouth once more and said "Would you maybe… Can you allow me to… Will you-” He sighted. Took a deep breath. Straightened his spine and looked her in the eyes.
“Please go on a date. With me. If you want to, of course.”
“I would love to”
***
After their first date, they finally know each other’s names.
***
After their second date, they kiss until they can’t breathe anymore, then they kiss some more.
***
After their 4th date, she officially meets his friends at a dinner at his place.
His friends are actually nice, although cunning and mischievous. They love making fun of her boyfriend and entertain her with tales of how pathetic he has been since meeting her.
Somehow, seeing how ridiculously in love with her he is, she has no trouble believing them.
Later when they’ve left, Hermione asks Draco
“How come your friends were talking about how good a cook you are when I thought you couldn't even choose an avocado on your own, and earlier today asked me to show you how I aromatised chicken?”
“...I may have pretended not to know so that you would keep on helping me.”
***
After a year of dating, of happiness, of love and of travels, he asks her to marry him.
***
After fifty years of marriage, they still look at each other like they did on that day of the Avocado Debacle.
And Draco still pretends not to know how to cook things so he can have his wife’s attention.